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Contributors
Sharon
Hughes- Contributor
A researcher,
writer and public speaker Sharon is the President and Executive
Director of The Center for Changing Worldviews, a non-profit
corporation founded for the purpose of increasing the conservative,
pro-family voice in a predominantly liberal society. Sharon
produces and hosts Changing Worldviews TALK Radio which is
the media outreach of The Center, and is heard Monday, Wednesday
and Friday on KDIA AM1640 San Francisco/Vallejo and online
daily at Oneplace.com. Sharon has worked to promote civic
responsibility on the grassroots level since 1992 through
various organizations such as Eagle Forum, so that America
will continue to be a land of liberty, respect for human
dignity and family integrity, as well as public and private
virtue. For further information on Sharon and The Center
go to www.changingworldviews.com or
contact her at sharon@changingworldviews.com [go to Hughes index]
 Wooing
for America's Top Job
Monday at the DNC Convention…
[Sharon Hughes] 7/28/04
As thousands of
hopeful democrats filled the convention halls in Boston, "more united than ever" we
are told by party leaders, I wondered, what impact this convention
would
have on
the outcome of the election since the nominees have already been
determined? Not since 1952 have party conventions actually nominated
their candidate, so what's the point? A party for the faithful?
A week of free media coverage?
Hillary Clinton
said Monday night "Let's
join together to do everything we can to convince our fellow
Americans to act on our convictions...to
send Kerry and Edwards to the White House." We know that
the democrats' strategy for this convention is to make sure the
speakers
tone down the anti-Bush, anti-war rhetoric. This makes sense
when you are trying to convince the undecided viewing audience
towards
your point of view, especially when you have speakers on the
program who have displayed unrestrained outbursts, such as Al
Gore and
Howard Dean.
However,
what we, as American voters, need is not a well orchestrated
show of
what will appeal to us, but just
the plain old truth, from
both parties, of their real agenda, attitudes and ability to
lead this nation. We don't need to be wooed. Just tell us the
truth
and we'll decide. But, unfortunately, that is not the nature
of politics. So, each of us has to take it upon ourselves to
discern
between the "advertising and selling" of convention campaigning
and the quality of the "product."
It's interesting
to note that the original Greek for hypocrite is "play-acting".
A soft definition would be to pretend; a harsher one would be to deceive. Equally
interesting are the three definitions given by FreeSearch online: when someone
pretends to believe something that they do not really believe or that is the
opposite of what they do or say at another time; He's a hypocrite, he's always
lecturing other people on the environment but he drives around in a huge great
car. Their accusations of corruption are hypocritical, they have been just
as corrupt themselves.
Just as accurate
history is a reliable source to knowing what really happened
in an era, so a candidate's record, not what they say or what others say about
them, tell us what they really believe and how they've acted on what they believe.
We can't lose sight of this in the midst of the "best" foot forward
performances and wooing that takes place.
There's too
much at stake to settle for anything less than the truth...the
real
truth about where the candidates
stand on the issues. So, don't just take
their
word for it, look at their record, and look at who supports them and their
record, and then compare those to the measuring rod of our Constitution,
the Bill of
Rights and the principles upon which this great nation was founded. Any other
standard would not be "American."
As my recent radio guest, Mason
Weaver,
Author if "It's Okay to Leave the
Plantation" and founder of the New Underground Railroad, says, "The
truth is not as you see it; the truth is as it is.. If you do not know the
truth when you find it, you will follow the one with the greatest lie."CRO
© Sharon
Hughes 2004 - Used with permission
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